Wednesday, August 19, 1998 Last modified at 12:43 a.m. on Wednesday, August 19, 1998

Anthrax cited in cow death

WAGON MOUND, N.M. (AP) - A cow died of anthrax last week at a ranch near Wagon Mound, and the carcass was buried in Raton's landfill, health officials said Tuesday.

Five other cattle died at the same ranch in the past two weeks, but anthrax was not immediately confirmed in those deaths, according to ranch veterinarian Mark Jansen and Dr. David Keller, director of the state Health Department's infectious disease epidemiology program.

"The rest of the animals all died of similar clinical signs," Jansen said Tuesday. He only saw the one buried Saturday at the landfill.

Several people who came near that animal, including a bulldozer operator and some ranch employees, were being treated with antibiotics in an effort to avoid any human illness. The health officials emphasized they expect no human anthrax cases.

Anthrax, a bacterial infection spread by spores in the soil, is usually treatable with antibiotics in its early stages, Keller said.

"We feel the immediate public health problem has been taken care of, and we're trying to figure where to go next," Keller said by phone late Tuesday. "We don't feel there's any risk."

He said the National Centers for Disease Control was consulted about the landfill burial, and it was decided the safest course was to leave the cow at the landfill and cover it with caustic lime and five to six feet of dirt to decontaminate the site.

That cow died Friday on a ranch that Keller said has more than 100 cattle. The rancher brought the dead cow to Jansen's clinic in Raton, where a blood sample was taken and sent immediately to a state lab in Albuquerque for testing Friday evening. The lab's anthrax confirmation came Monday and was announced Tuesday by the Health Department.

But the cow already had been buried in the landfill.

Keller and Jansen said the cow did not show classic anthrax symptoms. Jansen said he consulted the state lab before sending the sample and was told the cause of death probably would not be anthrax.

The caustic lime burial was completed Tuesday.

"We've done all we've been advised to do to eliminate the hazard," Raton City Manager Eric Honeyfield said.

Jansen said the lime-and-dirt cap should seal the spores forever.

He said environmental conditions for anthrax have been perfect in northeastern New Mexico - first drought, then heavy rainfall.

Paul Ettestad, state public health veterinarian, said anthrax spores stay alive in the soil 50 to 100 years, "and they can germinate and cause illness when there is a lot of rain after a dry period."

It's believed cattle get the illness when bacteria contact little cuts and scratches in their mouths, Keller said.

Human anthrax shows up either as a skin infection or as pneumonia, Keller said. Most human cases show up in a black sore where the bacteria entered the skin, he said, while the pneumonic form is much more dangerous.

But Keller said human anthrax is very rare.

"In general, humans need to have very close contact with an ill animal or the carcass of an infected animal to contract the illness," he said.

The state's last animal anthrax case was last September in Lea County, in southeastern New Mexico.

Investigators surmise the Mora County cow was infected in its pasture.

Keller said all six cows were pastured in the same general area of the ranch and that it's believed the other five already have been buried. Officials will consider whether to exhume them and burn them, he said.

Scientists agree the best way to dispose of an anthrax carcass is to burn it with an extremely hot fire, Keller said. Jet fuel has been used in such cremations, he said.